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JUNE 10, 1837. 



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EWING'S SPEECH 



I thank you, Mr. President, for the sentiment of approbation 
just delivered; and you, my fellow-citizens, I thanlc you heartily, 
for the approving spirit in wiiich it has been responded. I look 
upon the scene whicli is before me — upon the vast concourse of 
intelligent and patriotic citizens, assembled on tliis occasion, who 
fill the grove around us, with feelings, to which 1 will not attempt 
to give utterance. The impression sinks deep in my heart, and 
will remain among its most cherished recollections, 

I am just relieved, gentlemen, from a long and arduous term of 
service in the Councils of ihc Nation, to whicli the partiality of 
my fellow-citizens assigned me. That service is ended; and I 
will devote this occasion, which so happily occurs, when the pub- 
lic mind is aroused and public attention awakened, to speak of 
what I have seen and believe, as to the movement and tendency 
of our Government during the time that I have watched its pro- 
gress—studied to comprehend its course. There are epochs in 
the history of nations, short, perhaps, in their development, but 
enduring in their effects, which give them a tendency and a cha- 
racter that remains for ages. Such was the accession of Augus- 
tus Ca?sar to the consular and tribunitian power in Rome: — such 
the revolution of 16S8 in England. The two instances were 
opposite in their effects, but alike in their power, and in their per- 
manence. All agree that the Administration which is just pissed 
has engraven itself deeply on the history of our country; that our 
institutions have felt, and must continue to feel its influence; that 
not only the practice but the •principles of our Government have 
been somewhat changed: — all agree in this. Some say that they 
have been improved, others say they have been perverted; — but 
all agree that a bold and strong hand has been upon them, and 
marked them with his grasp. — It were instructive, then, to in- 
quire what has been the tendency of our Government during the 
past Administration, what are the principles, or what the great 
principle, which gave it direction and impulse, and which the pre- 
sent Chief Magisirate has j^ledged hinisclf to carry out; or, to 
use the language of a modern i)hilosoplier, as original as he is pro- 
found, What is the iDiiA. which the ])ast administration has tended 
to develope? I affirm, that it is the idev of umtv — a tendency 

A 



In concentrate all the powers of the Government in the hands of 
one man; — and I hold myself prepared to prove it by a review, 
brief though it be, of the leading measures of the Administration 
during the last eight years. 

I will place first in order, for it was the first that attracted my 
attention, and called forth my remonstrance, the exercise, for par- 
ty objects merely, of tlie power oi' appointment and removal by the 
President. That we may have a fair field before us — that we 
may take a somewhat comprehensive view of this important sub- 
ject—let us look back to the time of the second Adams, and hear 
the opinion of tiiose now in power and influence, oa the nature 
and tendency of this branch of Executive patronage. 

During the four years of that Administration, two individuals, 
and two only, whose names appear on tlie records of the Senate, 
were removed from office; nor was it pretended tiiat those remo- 
vals were for party purposes: and, within the same four years, 
some five or six printers of the public laws were changed. The 
change of printeis was alledged to be made for party purposes, 
witli how much or how litile truth I will not now stop to inquire; 
but it became a standing theme of declamation and reproach; and 
during that Administration, a few — but the number was small in- 
deed — of the members of Congress, were appointed to office by 
the President. They were, in fact, treated just as other citizens 
were treated; neither preferred nor rejected because of their 
station. Still the patriots of that day, who are the supporters of 
power in this, saw danger to our institutions, from the exercise of 
the appointing and removing power. So important was the sub- 
ject deemed — so imminent the danger — that, in the session of 
1825-'0, a committee of the Senate was raised specially to exa^ 
mine and report upon the subject; and it is but justice to say 
that they did their duty well. They do, in their Report, with 
great accuracy and exactness, point out as probable, the very 
mischief, wliich the]/, when tlicy possessed themselves of that 
power, hastened to inflict on the country. The Report to which 
J refer was made by Mr. Benton, as chairman of the committee, 
on the 4lh day of May, 182G. I will trouble you with reading a 
few extracts, which contain, as I think, much theoretic truth and 
speculative wisdom. 

After speaking of tin theory of a Government, when the law3 
should execute themselves without human agency, "the scene," 
says the Report, "shifts to the theatre of real life, when they 

* are executed by civil and military officers; by armies and n-^ 
' vies; by courts of justice, by the collection and disbursement of 

* revenue, with all its train of jobs and contracts; and, in this as- 
pect of tlie reality, we behold the working of patkonage, and dis- 



' cover the reason why so many stand ready in any country, nnd 
' in all ages, to flock to the sUuiJard of power, wlieresocver and 
' by whomsoever it may be raised."' Tiic report then refers to 
the Blue Book — the political register of that day — to show th« 
extent of tliat patronage, and adds, tJiat "the reduction of the 
*, public debt, and the income of the public revenue, will multiply 
' in a fourfold degree the number of persons in the service of the 

* Federal Government, the quantity of money io their hands, and 
' the objects to which it is applicable^" which, it adds, will in- 
' crease in geometrical progression the powers of the Covernmcut 

* and bring it to a degree of energy bpyond the ^ower of mind 
' to calculate or to comprehend." I would that 1 had the Ehie 
Jlook of that year and of this, to show, by the contrast, how true 
has been the prediction, and how vast the increase of the num- 
ber of the oflicers who subsist on the patronage of the Executive. 
'■The amount of money to be applied," says the Report, "will in- 
crease in a fourfold degree;" and so it has. The appropriations 
for all purposes, except the public debt., was then less than tv.'elve 
millions; — ten years after, in 1830, it was upwards cf forty-eight 
millions, — and the author of that ILeport, now arrayed on the side 
of power, and supporting its "stamdakd," attempted to swell that 
appropriation to more than eighty millions! 

But the direct ellect of Executive influence over and through 
.these public ofiices and the public funds, is further developed, in 
another paragraph of the same Report. Having presented a bit 
from the Blue Book, the paper proceeds: — "A formidable hit 
'indeed! — formidable in numbers, and still more so from the 
■^ vast amount of money in their hands. The action of such a 
' body of men, supposing them to be animated by the same spirit 
*must be tremendous in an election: and that they will bo so 
'animated is a proposition too plain to need demonstration. — 

* Power over a man'd support has always been held and aduiiited 
' to be power over his will. The President lias power over the 
' support of all tliese officer?; and they again have power over 
' the support of debtor merchants, to the amount of ten millions 
' of dollars per annum; and they again have power over the sup- 

* port of an immense number of individuals, professional mccha- 
' nics, and duy-Jaborers, to whom they -can, and will extend or 
' deny a valuable public and private patronage, according to the 
' part which they shall act in tSiate, as well as in Federal clec- 
' tions." The Report goes on to show that this miglify concen- 
tration of patronage and power, in the hands of the Jvxeculive — 
■'is an overmatch for tlie power and influence of Statk patronage; 

* — that its workings will contaminate the purity of all elections, 
•^ iiad enable the Federal Govwrnnient eventually to goverii 



' thionghout the States as eftectually as if they were so many 

* provinces of our vast empire." 

No one can doubt tliat the dangers to the purity of elections 
and to the liberties of the country, here pointed out, were immi- 
nent, if the Government should fall into the hands of men dispo- 
sed to make the worst possible use of power. So tlie Report 
views it; — so we all must feel if. But might it not have been 
hoped, that in the Senate and House of Representatives, some 
checlis would be interposed to tliis perverted political action; — 
that they, the guardians of the people's rights, would interpose 
and save the country from ruin and the people from bondage ?• — 
No — the Report goes on to show, that such hope would be vain. 
"The intended check and control of the Senate, without new 
'constitutional or statutary provisions, will cease to operate; — 

* patronage will penetrate this body; subdue its capacity of resis- 
' tance, chain it to the car of power, and enable the President to 
'rule as easily, and much more securely, with than without this 
'nominal check of the Senate. It then looks forward to the 
' time when the nomination by the President can carry any man 
' through the Senate, and any measure through the two Houses 
' of Congress; when the principle of public action shall be open 
' and avowed, the jtresident wants my vote and I want his j>a- 
^tronagc: I tcill vote as he wishes and he will give 7ne the 
' office I wish for. What will this be but a government of one 
' man, and what is a Government of one man but a monarchy."' 

These are the weapons, which, in the opinion of that commit- 
tee, a President who should wish to concentrate all the powers 
of the Government in his hands, could at once siezc and wield 
against the liberties of his country; and I have (juoted it the 
more at large, as it goes to establish a full and perfect knowledge 
on the part of those lately in power, and those who still retain it, 
tliat the abuse of the power of appointment and removal — its 
application to mere party purposes — its direction to the sole ob- 
ject of sustaining those in power without regard to the public 
welfare, must, in time, go far to establish the Government of one 
man, which, whatever name it may assume, is in substagjjg^.jj^ 
monarchy. 

I have said tliat in four years next prececding the Administra- 
tion of General Jackson, there were two removals from oflice, 
among those higher ollictrs which require the confirmation of tho 
Senate. In the two first years of General Jackson's Administra- 
tion, there were upwards of three hundred in th(; same class of 
olTiccrs — more tiian three times the number of all that were re- 
moved during the fast forty years of tlie existence of our Go- 
▼ernment. IS'or was the hand of power limited even there. The 



doctrine ^'as openly avowGcl in tlie Senate of llie United States, 
'•that to tlie victors belong the spoils of victory." The change of 
parties and llie transfer of power, was like the sack of a city. — 
The public weal was not cared for, but the public property was 
seized. Within the same two years, in all the offices, higli and 
low, the removals amounted to more than eleven hundred, and no 
appointment was made except of active political partizans. Du- 
rin<r the six following years the eye of the Executive has been 
upon the oflicers, great and small, tin-oughout the United States, 
watching, not the ftiithful discharge of their official duty, but 
iheir due adherence to party disciphne, and their strict discharge 
of party obligation- If any but a political adiierent remained in 
the discharge of a public trust, no matter how small the office, 
or how faithful the officer, he was removed, and a partizan fills 
his place. If any political partizan remits his exertion, or his 
tlioroiigh adherance is doubted, lie is removed, and another more 
active and cCricienl supplies his place. Thus, in time, the whole 
corps of office holders, whose names, closely printed, fill a volume 
of five hundred pages, has become, what it was predicted in the 
Report just referred to, tliey would become, an active, eflicient, 
organized band throughout all the States, from the centre to the 
extremity of the Union, whose efibrts are constant to support the 
party that sustain them, and centre all the powers of the Govern- 
ment in the hands of the man who is the head of that party. — 
All that could be done, in this particular, to carry out to its worst 
results this defective feature in our Constitution, pointed out by 
the Report, has been done, and still is in progress. 

I have spoken of the removal of those from office who were 
not active and efficient electioneering partizans. The record of 
the Senate and the several Departments shows the fact of their 
removal, and I have only to appeal to your own consciousness 
here and in every other town and city in the United States, where 
there are any officers of tiie Government stationed, whether the 
present incumbents do not act, as if they held it a part of tlieir 
official duty to take charge of the polls at your elections, and use 
all their power, personally and officially to control them. This 
has been ihe tenure by which they held their offices- and if any 
one hesitated to do the work assigned him — if he were tardy or 
scrupulous as to the means — he was thrown out of employment; 
perhaps deprived of support, and his character vilified by the pen- 
sioned presses. 

Another point of attack through this same power, when it 
could be brougiit to bear with full force against the liberties of 
the country, is pointed out in a part of that Report which I have 
just read, 'i'he Senate, by the Constitution, holds the negative 



on a!l tlie principle appointments to office, bat the Committee 
say, that "patronage will enter into and corrupt tliat body; — 
' that the President can govern as absolutely and in more security 
'with, than without, its nominal check; — and that his power, will 
' in time, be sufficient to cnrry any man through the Sonate."'' — 
Was this verified in the result? Did pitronage enter that body, 
on the accession of the late Administration to power? Have we 
forc^otten how many Senators' were at once selected to fill im- 
portant Executive offices?' More in the last eight years than un- 
der all the previous administrations of our Government. I need 
not name them, or say to you- that our present Chief Magistrate 
heads tlie list. Such were the means that were fixed upon and 
pursued to subjugate the Senate — the Executive was there ma- 
nifest in that chamber, ready to raise to offices of distinction, all 
who gave him their unflinching support. The effort was early 
made, and it was continued long to subdue the independence of 
the Senate. But the resistance was noble, and, for a long time, 
successful. Tlie single weapon, Patronage, was not enough to 
overthrow it. But, to subdue its capacity of resistance and chabi 
it to the car of power, another cffijetive engine, moved by the 
same hand, was brouglit into action. Executive patronage was 
guccessiveiy and carefully applied to the States whose Legisla- 
tores held, successively, the appointment of Senators, until, ia 
the language of the Report, "its workings contaminated the purity 
of elections"" and enabled the Executive, at last, to select a 
large proportion of the members of the body. The cQect was 
at last successful, and the Senate's capacity of resistance was 
subdued. 

Tins atrocious principle of reward for partisan service, and 
punishment for opposition, was carried beyond the mere Execu- 
tive offices, into the two Houses of Congress, and the whole 
weight of Executive power was brought to bear on each member 
of Congress, in either House, who dared to oppose an Executive 
measure, or expose the abuse and corruption of an Executive 
Department. Sometimes the weight of the Il'cecutive arm was 
sufficient to crush, at once, its virtues. If that were withstood, 
arrangements, artifice and fraud did the work. This was fol- 
lowed out as a fixed and constant system, until tlio President, and 
not the People, or the Representatives of the P 'ople, is looked 
to as the source of all power, and distributor of all patronage. 

To give this system its full and extended influence, — to en- 
large its sphere of action and increase its eflccts, — new oflices 
were created; old ones multiplied or used as multipliers, and sa- 
laries were increased. VVitncss the Indian agents and sub-agents; 
Commissioners to make treaties; Commissioners to apprai&c pro- 



perty, and agcnfs (o remove Indians nnd locate reservations; and 
witness, especially, our diplomatic relations with foreign powers. 
Take, for example, the mission to Uiissia. Mr. Middleton was 
re-callcd to m.ake pl.ice for Mr. Randolph. ]\Ir. Randolph retur- 
ned to make place for Mr. Buchanan; Mr, Buchanan, for Mr. 
Wilkins, who yields to Mr. Dallas, making, in eight years, four 
new Foreign Ministers, at an extra expense — a waste of money 
on that Mission of $52,500. No one will pretend that the coun- 
try was better served than if the lirst named Minister had remai- 
ned at his post; but the appointing power was extended, and the 
reward of political partizans increased. 

In some of the great Departments of our Government, com- 
monly styled "£j:cc?/^/re," and for the last eight years, under the 
most entire and absolute Executive control, the public money 
has been corruptly squandered to acquire and extend Executive 
inlluence; or the subordinate officers of those Departments have 
been permitted, through the medium of their offices, to enrich 
themselves and their friends and partizans out of the public pro- 
perty, or by illegal speculations upon individuals wiiorn their of^ 
fices placed in their power; thus making submission to the Execu- 
tive and adherence to the party in power — a road to v/ealth open 
to the restless and ambitious. Much of this has been disclosed 
in the Indian branch of the War Department; much more in that 
part of the Treasury which has charge of Public Lands and De- 
posite Banks: and still more — for that office alone has been in- 
vestigated fully, and ils frauds exposed — still more in the Gene- 
ral Post Office, which, in consequence of the extent of its 
corruptions, and its clTiciency as an electioneering agent, has also 
arisen to the dignity of an Executive Department. I am not, 
gentlemen, either uncharitable or unjust in charging upon the 
late Executive and his Cabinets, (actual and potential,) the fraude: 
which were disclosed in the General Post Office. Tlicy were not 
the atlairs of a day — or the single act of peculation or fraud 
of an obscure or subordinate agent; no, it was a system adopted 
and acted upon for a series of years — commencing by a false 
Report from the head of the Department, in the session of 1830, 
and continued by acts, year after year, more corrupt, and Reports 
more false, until the veil that half covered, but did not conceal 
their abominations, was. finally, in 1835, rent froin tliem, and 
they were exposed to the world in all their naked defortnity. It 
were vain to attempt the casting off of those crimes which even a 
political pensioned press could not openly sustain — it were vain 
to cast those crimes upon the miserably inefficient individual who 
was the nominal head of that Department. It was the work of 
those who made up tho Executive. The measures of that De- 



8 

partment were Execiitiie measures, and its corruptions were of 
Executive counsel and head. I make not these assertions with- 
out evidence to my own mind, at least, entirely conclusive. 

In the session of 1S30-'31, a proposition was made in the Se- 
nate to investigate the affiirs of the General Post Office, founded 
upon the great and llagrant abuses which were alleged to have 
crept into the administration of its affairs. The committee was 
appointed, they detected many abuses; — among others the alte- 
ring of a word in sundry places for the evident purpose of impea- 
ching the oath of an individual who had been dismissed from 
office for lack of subserviency. When the proof thickened, and 
the appearance of guilt became strong, the wily Chairman of the 
standing committee on the Post Office and Post Roads, (Mr. 
Grundy,) who was also on the select committee, raised an objec- 
tion to evidence, without having that objection acted on in the 
committee; he brought it before the Senate, and on that a debate 
arose which wore out the session. Tims the investigation was 
for that time eluded. Afterwards, I think it was in the year 1832 
-'3, another investigation was elicited by the loud and continued 
complaints of abuses in the Department. I was at that time a 
member of the Post Office committee, of which Mr. Grundy was 
still chairman. I was in a minoritij, and, during the whole investi- 
gation, I never saw a witness, or a paper of any kind relating to 
the affairs of the office, until the chairman produced his report 
and read it, denying all the charges touching tlie conduct of the 
Postmaster General and his subordinates, and .^peaking in high 
terms of the ilourisliing condition of the Department, its fiicilities 
and its finances. In 1833-''4, the majorities were changed, and 
then took place an investigation in good faith: and then it was 
that all those enormous abuses, which had before forced them- 
selves upon the knowledge of the public, were disclosed and ex- 
posed. The Executive, and the minions of the E.\ecutive, did 
not yield to the point. They denied what was proved to de- 
monstration itself. They assailed, with all the fierceness of baf- 
fled avarice and deep seated malignity, all who were concerned 
in forwarding the investigation, and especially men who supported 
its most active mover and promoter. 

Accompanying the Report, which I, as the organ of the com- 
mittee, at that time presented, was a resolution condemnatory of 
one of the secret and lawless acts done by the head of the De- 
partment. That resolution, the only one voted on, was carried 
unanimoushj in the Senate — no one, however strong his party fee- 
lings, ciioosing to stain his own character with his support of the 
act. This, however, did not silence the pensioned j)ress, or the 
clamors of those who were battening on the spoils. The investi- 



gallon was continued and carried out; a committee of the House 
joined in tlie inquiry, and fully corroborated all that liad been 
aliown by that of the Senate; and then, and not till then, were the 
Executive engines silenced, and their blood liounds called off 
Ironi the chase. JJut liow were those wholiad been detected and 
exposed in otlicial falseliood — in aiding his friends and political 
retainers, and political partizans, to peculate upon the revenues 
of the department; and how were those wiio iliemselves joined 
in the peculation and shared the spoils, dealt with by the head of 
our free and just republic? Barry, wlio had been the actor or the 
instrument — who Jiad committed much, and permitted all — 
was allowed to retire upon a foreign mission; and Obadiah B. 
Brown, convicted of alieriiig and falsifying the books of the De- 
partment — with 40,000 dollars of the Public money in his 
hands unaccounted for — was allowed to resign: — and when, at 
last, the General Post Ollice was consumed, he was made tha 
keeper of all the books and papers which were saved from the 
flames. 

Now, from the very face of this narrative, plain and simple — 
detailiug events in tiieir order, as they occuired — can any one 
doubt, that the keen-sighted, intelligent leaders of the party in 
Washmjiton — those whom the Presidejit most counselled and 

to 

most relied on — knew and approved what was done and doing in 
the General Post OOlce? ^Vhy, when all the Cabinet was dis- 
missed, for the purpose of making it a unit, was Mr. Barry alone 
excepted, unless it were to carry on the scheme of corruption 
which was begun, and was to be persevered in witljout fear of 
scruples which might arise in the mind of a successor, and inter- 
fere with the system? Why, when in either House of Congress, 
that Department was especially challenged and accused by the 
opposition — why did not the Executive himself cause its conduct 
and condition to be specially inquired into, and its errors correc- 
ted? And how is it possible to believe, that we, of the Opposi- 
tion, to whom the doors of that Department were, in a great de- 
gree closed, should discover and expose abuses unknown to those 
who were as familiar in the Department as they were at their 
own firesides? WJiy, at last, .when condemning proof was addu- 
ced against it, did the Executive, and his presses, and his minions 
of all grades, sustain those who had betrayed their public trust, 
and attack and pursue, with fiend-like fury, all who had aided in 
its exposure? And why, at last, appoint to an honorable oflice 
the head of that Department whom public opinion compelled to 
reiire from it for flagrant abuse of his official trust? The answer 
to all these inquiries is obvious; it was a part ot' the general sys- 
tem of the Administration so to conduct that Department, be- 



10 

cause, by so conducting it, they released it from the restraint and 
obligation of laic — it became subject to Executive discretion. — 
Tlie amount of money to be disbursed on '■'jobs and contracts''* 
was increased; and the number of men who could be employed 
and influenced was increased also. The abuse, therefore, of that 
Department was an Executive measure, adopted for the purpose 
of strengthening tiie Executive arm. 

The Veto was another weapon used by the President to place 
liis power above all other powers of the Government, and to ab- 
sorb lliem all. He found in it a safeguard of Hxecutive rights, 
placed in the Constitution to guard against legislative encroach- 
ment: — he so used it, that it gave him sovereign power over all 
active legislation — power to permit or to forbid it. The means 
of patronage and influence which I have already considered, 
were sufficient, in all most all c.ses, to control, if not a majority, 
nt least one third of one branch of Congress. When this number 
was once secured, no law could p'lss which was displeasing to the 
President, for his veto was efficient to arrest and defeat it; but, if 
the country called so loudly for the measure, that even Execu- 
tive influence could not command a third part of either House; if 
the majority of both branches were overwhelming, as to amount 
filmost to unanimity, there was still another resource — a choice 
few could be obtained who would devise pretex-is kr dclai/s : — 
the measure demanded by the People, but obnoxious to the Exe- 
cutive, would be postponed to within ten days of the close of the 
session, and instead of returning the bill, with a veto, his mode 
was to destroy, by withholding it. Such, for example, was the 
case with the bill rescinding the 'J'reasury Circular, which is fresh 
in the recollection of you all, and which, with other acts, equally 
arbitrary, has inflicted unparalleled injury and sullering on our 
country. 

The exercise of the Veto, aided by the other, more important, 
because more efloclual, Exccuti»'e prerogative, of retaining a bill 
passed by more than two-thirds of both branches, and thus pre- 
venting the further action of Congress upon it, has, for the last 
eight years, made the President of the United States absolute in 
his power of preventing legislation. No law could be passed, 
however much it might be demanded by the country, if it did not 
suit his purposes and meet his concurrence. As to active legisla- 
tion, this was assumed in another manner. 

The President was sworn to support the Constitution, and see 
that the laws were fiithfuUy executed. By virtue of this oath of 
office, and of this Constitutional injunction, tiie late President 
claimed the right to expound and construe the Laws, and deter- 
mine for Jiimsclf their meaning and extent, and also their agree- 



II 

mcnt with the Constitution. Alllioiirr]] the .liidicial power is pla- 
ced in other hands — thougli tlie Soprenie Coiiit of tlie United 
States would be but a useless toy, it' tiiis power of construction 
were vested in the President; nevertheless, he claimed and excr- 
dsed it — and that, too, aijninst a decision of the Supreme CourJ 
apon the very point. It will be at once seen, that if such claim 
be admitted ajid sustained, the President if he be unscrupulous 
or capricious, may make our laws say whatsoever may suit his 
own purposes. The Judicial power cannot correct nor control 
him, for in the construction of the laws, his very claim is the 
power of revising and correcting the decisions of the Courts. — 
The Legislative, branches cannot control him: for his veto poircr, 
his power to j)ostpone, and finally, to retain bills which conflict 
with his purposes, make him absolute in saying what the law 
shall he or is, and perfectly absolute in making it remain as he has 
pronounced it. Nothing more strc<igly evinces the wantonness 
and absurdity of uncontrolled power than the distinctions which 
the late President built up for himself, on which to rest a reason 
for doing what he willed to do, and for refusing to do what was 
not pleasing to him. For mstance, he vetoed the bill making an 
appropriation for the Maysville and Lexington road — which was 
urged and pissed as part of a great line of communication from 
Washington City to Florence, in Alabama, branching oQ' from the 
Cumberland Road at Zanesviile: — he veined the bill giving aid 
to this all important and national work, on the ground of alleged 
unconstitutionality, while at the same time he signed the bills 
wJiich, year after year, made heavy api^ropriations on the Cumber- 
land road, a part of the same great undertaking, and resting on 
precisely the same principle, so fur as I could conceive, of nation- 
ality in its object. Tiie distinction taken by General Jackson 
was, that the appropriation for the Cumberland road Viras made 
obligatory a contract with the new States; as if a contract to vio- 
late the Constitution could give a right to violate it. No, fellow- 
citizens, it was u mere pretence to extend Executive discretion, 
and to compel those who sought the passage of laws favourable 
to their sections of tiie country, to seek it through Executive, 
rather than the Legislative, action. Thai no actual constitutional 
scruple ever did rest upon the mind of llie President, and prevent 
his sanction of that law, I infer fiom another distinction still 
inore ridiculous, which he adopted in another class of cases. — 
Many appropriations were made by Corgress for the improvement 
of our rivers, which, (with some exceptions, that 1 need not her« 
stop to point out.) rest on precisely the same ground with road* 
and canals. The President undertook to discriminate among 
iheia, and to make some consiitutional and others not;, and th-A 



12 

rule wliich he lay down was, that all which were below a. port of 
entry were constitutional, and he gave thcni his sanction; all 
above, violated tiie Constitution. The Senators from Indiana 
made several attempts to get an appropriation for improving the 
navigation of the VVabash river, but their bills were vetoed. — 
They then endeavored to get a jiort of entry established higher 
up the river, so that it might become constitutional to make the 
contemplated improvements. This suggested to a friend of ours 
in the House of Representatives a most compendious remedy for 
the evil. He drew up a resolution, (I believe he did not offer it.) 
making the High Lands which separate the waters falling into the 
Gulf of Mexico from those falling into tlie Atlantic and the St. 
Lawrence, one continuous port of entry, so that it might become 
constitutional to improve the navigation of all below. But ridi- 
culous as these distinctions were, they served to concentrate 
power and influence in the hands of the Executive. It caused 
those who sought favors from Government to seek them through 
him, and it made his very caprices more potent than the sound 
intelligence of the nation besides, backed and supported by the 
constitution of the country. 

It has been another favorite pursuit of the past Administration, 
by every means which could be used vvith effect, either by rew 
legislation, or by new and arbitrary construction, to render the 
laws vague, so that much discretion should be lefc to the public 
officers in their execution. 1 need instance only the inroads 
which have been made upon our land system, formerly the most 
perfect perhaps that was ever devised. 

Instead of regular sales to the highest bidders, a fair competi- 
tion and equal privileges to all purciiasers, and the universal right 
to make entries after closing tlie sales, such as it was under our 
old and well trit-d system, a set of pre-emption laws were com- 
menced under the last Administration, and continued until the 
winter of 1835— "G, when we succeeded, at last, in arresting their 
progress: but we could not put an end to the evils whicli they 
had produced. I need not detail to you, gentlemen, the frauds, 
the peculation, the lawless violence that had its origin in these 
pre-em[)l!on laws, which were feigned to be intended for the 
benefit of the poor, while, in fact, they only increased the alrea- 
dy overgrown fortunes ( f the rich speculator and monopolist. — 
I look at it here in a different and more important aspect — as a 
measure, a part of a system, whose whole tendency was to put 
down the law and the power of the law, and substitute in its 
{)laco personal caprice and Executive discretion. The right to 
pre-emptions had to be proved before the Registers and Receivers 
of the Land ollices, and their certilicate was generally conclusive 



13 

of the claim. A lefral right might be lost by the ill-will of those 
officers; a claim not legal might be sustained by their favor. In 
some cases they became partners in the claims which had to pass 
under their sanction: In others, they contented themselves with 
advancing the interests of their personal friends and political par- 
lizans. Sometimes appeals were taken, from the decisions of Re- 
gisters and Receivers to the Commissioner of the General Land 
Office; and while our fellow-citizen, Governor Brown, was at the 
head of that bureau, neither private fraud nor political favoritism 
was countenanced there. But he was too honest to hold office 
in those times, and under that Administration. His situation was 
rendered unpleasant; he was annoyed, assailed, ridiculed, and at 
last resigned. 

As the measures of the past Administration are to be carried 
out by the present, we shall, no doubt, have forced upon the 
country another set of pre-emption laws; the vocation of the pro- 
fessional squatter will become again a profitable vocation, and. if 
any of you venture to go to the West to bid for land at the public 
sales, with the hope of securing a fiivorite spot on which to set- 
tle your children, your bid will be drowned by the voice of an 
angry multitude, or yourselves assailed for daring to oppose the 
new power which has risen up and taken the place of law under 
the late glorious Administration. 

By means like these, which I have touched upon, but have not 
been able fully to detail, all the patronage and power of the 
Government, the power of removal, the Legislative power, the 
dispensing power, the Judicial power — all the powers of the 
GoYcrnment except the control over the public purse, have been 
drawn together and centered in a single hand: — and did he 
leave the public turse, the other great lever with wJiich nations 
are moved and directed, did he leave that untouched, or unat- 
tempted? No; the struggle for that, is loo recent, was too long 
continued and too fierce, to have been overlooked or forgotten. — 
We see too many of the consequences of that contest around us, 
we feel too strongly its effects to let it pass suddenly or lightly 
from our memory. 

At the time of the charter of the Bank of the United States, 
in ISIG, that Bank was made the depositary x^f the public monies, 
and also the fiscal agent of the Government. In its capacity as 
depositary it belonged to the rej)resentatives of the States and 
the people — the two Houses of Congress — and was properly 
responsible to them alone. As the disbursing agent it was the 
agent of the Executive, subject to the performance of certain 
duties prescribed by law — in all other respects it was a private 
corporation, subject to individual control, and pcirtook no more of 



14 

=a political character than any oUicr chartered institution of tl>s 
■country. So it was considered, so it acted, and during the Admi- 
nistration of Mr. Adams and the first year of President JacLson, 
.no one attributed to it a party or political character. 

But when the new Administration got in power, the possible 
use that might be made of tliis moneyed institution in cementing 
the influence or rewarding the partizans of the new Adminiatra' 
tion was not overlooiied. 

Gen. Jackson was elected to tlie Presidency in November 1S28, 
and took the oath of office on tJio 4tli day of March, 1829; and 
between the lime of liis election and inauguration the first clYortu 
were bewun to 'fain over the Bmk of the United States, in which 

DO 

were the public deposites, so as to make it and the deposites lh« 
instrumcnte ef Executive will. The first eflort was made in 
Kentucky by certain members of Congress from that State, 
Iriendly to the new Administration, who caused a paper to b« 
presented to the casliier of the bank of Lexington, naming seve- 
ral individuals as directors of the branch at that place, wlio, it 
was said, would be acceptable to the party in power. Tlie cha- 
racter and standing of the individuals named did not, as it ap- 
pears from the accompanying docu:nents, stand too higli to justifv; 
an opinion that if appointed by the instruction of party leaders 
they would be used for party purposes. The attempt at dictation 
was at once repelled by the Bank. 

The second efl'ort was made by Isaac Hill and some other pro- 
minent party leaders in New Hanipsliiro, to remove a President 
of the Portsmouth Bank, because his politics were not agreeable 
to the party in power. This proposition assumed a semi-otficial 
chajacter, and ihougli believed t3 have the sanction of the cabi- 
net, it was rejected without hesitation. But this rejection wag 
followed by a long and deadly war waged by the Executive 
against that Bank, which ended in its destruction as a national 
institution. Tiie first decisive attack is made by the President, 
in his message of the 7th Deceinljer, 1830, in which he proposes 
to organize a bank as a branch of the Treasury Department, with 
the necessary offices, based on public and individual deposites, 
with permission to sell bills of exchange to iiidividuals. A bank 
in which the public money was to be deposited, with president, 
directors, cashier, every officer appointed, and its whole machine 
ry moved by the Executive hand. This is what he essnyed to 
make of the B:aik of the United States; failing in this he then di9- 
closed his purpose to pull down that bank and build up anothet 
institution which should do his bidding. Hence followed the Vi*- 
o-o upon the bill rcchariering the Bank of the United States. — 
A.i the lime the njcssage coalaiuiug this Veto und the rcaaoiis. 



1 



n 



wild and inconsistent as they were, I saw the fixed purpose of the 
President, and I saw, or thought I saw, the consequences which 
would follow the pursuit of that purpose. But much as was 
said of the injury to our currency, the destruction of exchanges, 
the general prostration of business and commerce, the suffering 
of the poor, the misery of the debtor, and all the evil and un- 
Jiappy consequences which must follow a shock, such as tljis 
whicli was to come upon our country, I felt that it was all of 
small importance compared with the danger to our institutions 
from following out the Executive plans for the assumption of the 
public purse, with the other powers of government that he had 
gathered in his hands. But there was one circumstance which I 
long hoped would save us from the final consummation of all 
these mischiefs and the full concentration of all power in the 
bold hand that was so eager to grasp it. The plans of the Presi- 
dent could not be carried out — a Treasury bank could not be es- 
tablished, filled to overflowing with the accumulating and increa- 
sing revcBues, until the year lS3u, when the charter of the bank 
which held the public deposites by law should expire, and within 
one year of which time his term of service would expire also. — 
It was not to be presumed that any man would succeed him 
having the icill and the power to carry his purposes to their 
result. 

But it was determined by the President not to wait the slow 
efflux of lime. Hence the message of 1830, calling the atten- 
tion of Congress to the subject of the Dank, or rather a bank, to 
be built upon its ruins. Hence in his message to Congress in 
December, 1832, in which he suggested doubts whether the Bank 
of the United States were a safe depositary of the public funds. 
That It was not in good faith with a view of ascertaining whether 
it was safe, I infer from the fact that after a full investigation had 
been made by an agent appointed by himself — after a most ela- 
borate and careful examination by the House of Representatives 
on tlhe same subject, both of which ended in conclusive, absolute 
proof that the public deposites were safe, and that the bank was 
well conducted for the interests of the country, a conclusion in 
which the House of Rt'prcsentalives almost unanimously concur- 
red; he set on foot at once, immediately" on the adjournment of 
Congress, negociations and arrangements for removing those de- 
posites on his own responsibility. This was one of his most pow- 
erful and determined etTons. To accomplish tliis he set at defi- 
ance the Constitution and the Laws and a sacred compact of the 
nation. To effect this, he removed two Secretaries of the Trea- 
sury, the one to anotiier department, the other he dismissed from 
A&fvicti belbre he could find an instrument suhservient asd reck- 



16 

les3 enough to do the deed. This violation of the faith of the 
nation in a monied transaction — this blow upon the credit of the 
country — the placing of the immense public treasure in a num- 
ber of irresponsible banks where it wiaild remain to tempt the 
cupidity of those who had it in their read), and awaken an inor- 
dinate spirit of speculation — all combined, were decisive of the 
present fate of our commerce and our currency. Its destiny was 
sealed; no human power could afterwards save us from the shock, 
though wise counsels might have weakened its force, and have 
put off for awhile the evil day. But our doom was from that mo 
inent fixed, the day of tribulation was coming and must come, 
and it must and did come through these new fiscal agents, got 
up by Executive usurpation. I need not tell you, fellow-citizens, 
for you all remember with what energy this act of the President 
was' opposed in the Senate — how much the consequences were 
deprecated and how justly depicted, and how deep the wound 
that was alleged to be inflicted upon the Constitution and Liber- 
ty of our country. They cannot be forgotten — ihey have been 
kept constantly before the public — charged by the agents and 
advocates of Executive power as effusions of disappointed ambi- 
tion or parly malevolence, while those who urged and those who 
uttered them have constantly asserted and reiterated the same 
opinions and renewed the same predictions. It was the removal 
of the deposites, with all its train of abominations, that the Le- 
gislature of Ohio, in the winter of 1S34- 5, instructed me to sus- 
tain, and it was because I would not betray my trust and connive 
at a violation of the Constitution of our country, and become a 
parly to all the mischiefs which were to follow in the train of that 
lawless act — it was for this that I was denounced and pursued 
by the marshalled host of political Janissaries. 

Though the disease which has been brought upon our curren- 
cy has now become so inveterate that no remedy which will be 
applied can effect a cure, yet it may be interesting for a moment 
to trac<5 the several stages by which it has been brought to its pre- 
sent degree of virulence. The lu-st blow that was dealt by the 
Executive arm at the great moneyed institution, was the origin of 
the evil, though its clfocls were not at once apparent. The re- 
moval of the deposites aggravated and hastened the crisis, not 
go much by wc.dveuing the Bank of the United States, as by 
placing an immense amount of public money in the hands of the 
ExeciUive and his subordinate agents. Shortly after the removal 
of the deposites the amount of public money arose to an m> 
mcnsc sum, and as it was credit o/dy, it possessed the attribute of 
multiplying itself to an indefinite extent. There was, for exana- 
pie, one million of dollars of the public money in a dcposite 



17 

bank, more than would he prohahly drawn out in flic current year 
for the purposes of Government; that bank would tlierefore lend 
this million for the purpose of making interest upon it. The 
money so loaned would be paid into the Land-Olficcs or for Cus- 
toms and immediately deposited in the same bank, to be loaned 
again and again for the same purpose. Such was the course of 
things occurring in numerous banks, which the abundance of fic- 
titious capital multiplied beyond any former precedent, until 
speculation, instigated by the fictitious state of things, run out 
into wild excess. 

The unparallelled sales of the public lands which took place 
last year, amounting to more than twenty-three millions of dol- 
lars, were the legitimate fruits of the removal of the deposites. 
This is no new thought of mine. In my speech on the Land 
Bill, on the 15th and 16th days of March, 1836, I advanced the 
idea, and somewhat at large developed the mode of its operation; 
and I added, that what the government receives for their land 
"is not money but a cheat,''' mere trash, and that '-every thing is 
' tending to a catastrophe similar to that of 1818." 1 believe I 
had not the date of the past commercial catastrophe exactly 
right, but as to the then future catastrophe, no one will say that 
I erred very widely in my prediction of its coming. 

In the session of lS33-''4, familiarly called the "panic session/' 
(we hear of no "panic'''' now) Mr. Clay in speaking of the change 
of the public deposites, likened the Bank in which they had been 
placed, to a good strong ship, the Constitution, and the several 
new depositaries to a fleet of "bark canoes tied together by a 
' grape vine." He thought they might float awhile in fair weather 
and on a smooth sea, but the first fresh breeze that passed over 
them would, he said, send them and their freight to the bottom. 
The only mistake in those who predicted the event, was in enter- 
taining the hope that they would not sink so suddenly. But 1 
have often said, and I repeat if, I look upon the injury to our 
currency — the mischiefs done to the present interests of the 
community, as of small importance compared with that inflicted 
upon the Constitution, and the danger which it involves to the 
liberties of our republic. 1 have not spoken, nor will I speak, of 
that miserably ill-judged expedient, the Treasury Circular, the 
last arbitrary act of a retiring despot, intended to strengthen the 
deposite banks by emptying into them the vaults of all others, but 
which led to private hoarding and took from those banks more 
than it gave. 1 will not speak of it nor dwell upon it: In truth, 1 
sicken at the mere recital of the usurpations of power and the 
wrongs which have been borne for years by this misgoverned na- 
tion. If It were but the miserable, silly experiment of a hard 

J3 



IS 

money currency wliich was, in truth, tlic object of tlioso who 
guide the Executive counsels, we might consider it as ended, 
and laugh at it and at the suffering which it has brought upon us; 
but let us not flatter ourselves with such a belief. The hard- 
money currency — the new mints at Dahlonega and Orleans wliich 
were to coin llie yellow hoys, the real mint drops, that were to 
shine through the long silken purses of our farmers, was a mere 
hoax — a tub fcr the whale. The projectors were r.ever silly 
enough to doubt how this would all end. They knew, and all of 
us knew, that it wordd end in the destruction of the subject 
uhieh they professed to improve — but they knew also, while 
the experiment was in progress it would cover iheir march to ab- 
solute power. So far, the Executive has moved on with giant 
strides toward this object, and will the present incumbent, who is 
pledged to carry out ihe principles of his predecessor, go forward 
in his footsteps? If that be his purpose he will sieze upon the 
present disturbed condition of the country, and the excited state 
of the public mind and attempt at once, without argument or dis- 
cussion, to establish a Treasury Bank which shall be the mere 
creature of the Executive will. And why, if this be not his pur- 
pose — why was Congress on a sudden convened after the stale 
of things became irremediable, when their convention was refu- 
sed, though demanded by the united voice of the commercial 
community while relief was yet possible? But let not the friends 
of the Constitution and of the country be for a moment decei- 
ved by any bait which he may throw out, or drawn into any snare 
which he may set for them. If the President be now ready to 
resign a portion of his ill-gotten and misused power — if he will 
truly surrender the public purse into the hands of the Represen- 
tatives of the People, let them go hand in hand with him in coun- 
ting the mischiefs of the past, but let them not compromise or 
yield up any of the sncred rights and duties with which they are 
entrusted; especially not by a vote of theirs, surrender the public 
purse uito the hands which have assumed it, and thus make legal 
the plunder. If their stand be firm in this last crisis, and their 
effort vigorous, success will attend them, for the crown and 
strength of the adversary are departed. The present Executive 
may pledge himself to "carry out the principles of the past,"' but, 
thank God, the power — the moral energy — is wanting. The 
pigmy that occupies the hold cannot hurl the lance nor wear the 
armour of the absent giant. Ho has the sword but not the arm 
to wield it. Despotism, which has made long and rnpid strides, 
may he bid to stand — nay, it may be driven back in its footsteps 
— the country, though long misgoverned, mny bo still saved, if 
the friends of the Constitution, in every part of the Union, will 
rally, unite and come to the 7'csci/c. X./' 



LtJelO 



